reinstalling grub

[Gordon]

Hi Folks

I'm back again with a problem.
Problem caused by that rhubarb program windows. Yep it crashed,  it was on windows 10 and for some reason or other it went down. It's own fix it would not work so I had to do a reinstall using windows 8.1 which of course screwed up grub. I have spent ages on Google reading how to recover it and have managed to get so far but now am lost. If not too much trouble I would appreciate some help.
Here is what I have managed to come up with using a live dvd running version 4.0.0.1 which is the latest one that I have.

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root@vsido:/home/vsido# mount /dev/sdax /mnt
root@vsido:/home/vsido# grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdax
Installing for i386-pc platform.
grub-install: warning: File system `ext2' doesn't support embedding.
grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible.  GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists.  However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists.
root@vsido:/home/vsido# update-grub
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of `overlay'.
root@vsido:/home/vsido# grub-update
bash: grub-update: command not found
root@vsido:/home/vsido# update-grub
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of `overlay'.
root@vsido:/home/vsido#

I have no idea how to go any further. Help Please

[PackRat]

What's your Linux partition layout?

[Gordon]

Hi PackRat

Windows is first on the disk then Linux starts sda3, sda4 and a swap spot

[PackRat]

Ok, that was my other question (had to get the pizza out of the oven first).

Are Sda3 and Sda4 / and /home?

And you want grub on the MBR?

[Gordon]

Yep, I think that is where it needs to be, at least thats where I am trying to put it

[Gordon]

shattered now of to bed, will check it out tomorrow night night

[PackRat]

mount /dev/sdax /mnt

Is that literal? sdax needs to be the linux root partition - sda3

grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdax

I think that just needs to be:

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grub-install /dev/sda

to install to MBR

then:

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update-grub
If Windows 8 isn't found by grub, it's usually because the Fast Boot is enabled - you'll have to make some changes to Windows 8 then run update-grub again.

[PackRat]

There is also the chroot method to reinstall to MBR

[hakerdefo]

I wrote an article on this ages ago. It could be of use to you,

How to recover deleted or corrupted Grub2 bootloader

Cheers!!!

[Gordon]

Hi PackRat

Happy to say I am now back up and running again. Thanks for all your help and time.

Hi hakerdefo

Thanks for the link. I didn't find it when I did a search, perhaps I used the wrong terminology.
I Will be making a copy of your instruction for future use if I need it. Most likely knowing me 

Again thanks to all for your very valuable time and assistance.